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12.15.2010

Plywood to plank flooring tutorial

When recently redoing the room above our garage, we decided that we were DONE with the carpet. Our plans were to rip it up, plank the floor, and then paint it. We never expected the plywood planking that we made to look good enough to STAIN!

We started the project with sheets of plywood. We ripped them on the table saw into 6 inch strips that were all 8 feet long. Then, we Dustin carried all of this up to the house so it could sit and “acclimate” to the room. I don’t know if that helped, but that is something that is recommended when laying hardwood flooring.

It, surprisingly, only took us an hour and 45 minutes to cut the sheets into the planks.

With the materials purchased and gathered, Dustin cleaned up the room with the shop vac. He made sure all the subfloor panels were nailed down securely. Some required him to add some screws to make sure they were tight.

Then the fun started. We measured and figured… measured some more.. and some more…

Before we began, we made sure to figure out our pattern so that each row of flooring would alternate where the nails were. We also knew that we would need to cut shorter pieces for the end that were around 11 inches long. We wanted those “short” pieces to alternate back and forth with each row.

We started with the first board and squared it with the wall, leaving a 1/16 inch gap between the first board and the wall. We dry fitted it before applying a bead of Liquid Nail along the length of the board. We put the board in place and Dustin hammered in the nails on the marks. Later, he went though with a nail punch to make sure that the nails were at least flush with the flooring.

Between each board and each row, we left a 1/16 gap. The plan all along was to paint this flooring, so we wanted it to LOOK like planks instead of just a solid, painted panel floor. We worked our way back and forth, alternating which side we started on with each row. We didn’t worry about the 11 inch pieces we needed for each end until we were completely finished with the room.

We wanted the nails to be in line, so we started this process by marking them as we went. (Later, I started marking them ahead of him because I wasn’t much help anywhere else). This also really sped up the process since he didn’t need to measure every 16 inches. After a while, Dustin made a jig to help with the measuring and marking for where the nails went. Then I just had to line it up with the previous board and mark rather than measure for every single nail.

We ended up using 11 nails per board by alternating two nails then one then two, etc, as you can see in the above picture. We wanted it to have some order and thought they would look nicer lined up. We originally only nailed every 16 inches with two nails. When he took the first break, we realized that we needed to secure it a little more. The Liquid Nail was still wet and the board were moving up and down when we walked on them. That’s when he went back and added the single nail in line with each board.

Once it was all finished, we sanded the rough places and the spots where there was a little bit of blue and green paint from the lumber yard. As always, we had animal support throughout the whole process. Up until this point here, we planned to paint the boards dark brown. We wanted a dark farmhouse plank floor look. We never imagined when we started that this would be a stainable project.

We hand stained the whole floor. There are tools that are made to make it easier and faster. We’ve never used them and wanted to make sure the stain went on evenly. And, we were dealing with plywood so we weren’t really sure what it was going to do. It went on perfectly… and in 4.5 hours.

We coated the floor with four coats of ploy. The first coat took about 8 hours to dry. We really didn’t want to have to sand between coats, so we made sure to recoat within 12 hours. He used a bristle applicator rather than a wool one. It seemed like he had better control over the thickness with it. We had to evacuate the house at night while it was drying. It was in the 30s outside, so opening the windows wasn't’ really an option. He’s not wearing it in the above picture because he had just started, but he did wear a face mask the whole time he did the coats of poly.

Since we didn’t plan to stain this until the last minute, we weren’t concerned with the fact that you could see white spots on the subfloor beneath. We knew that those would get covered up when we painted the floor. Since we didn’t do that, something had to be done. At night, with the overhead lights on, those places GLARED white.

I went out and bought some Burnt Sienna Americana paint. One night, while Dustin hung the new ceiling fan, I scooted around on the floor with my Americana paint and a tiny paint brush and filled in the cracks. I wanted to wait until the floor was completely poly’ed and dry because if/hen I got it on the flooring, it wiped right off with a paper towel. It was the perfect color and was the perfect solution for our dilemma.

Can you believe that this is the same room? Or, that this floor started its life as plywood?!

We are so happy with this flooring and our decisions! By doing this, we have saved well over $1500 that hardwood flooring would have cost. We like it so much, that we plan to do this in our kitchen soon. We plan to paint or whitewash it there though.

We've moved all the furniture in and I'm just trying to figure out what to hang on the walls! I'll definitely be putting the starburst mirror I made in here somewhere! The rest of the wall space is still up for grabs :)

January 18 UPDATE:
I've been asked, emailed, seen comments about the roughness of the floor. I walk barefoot on it all the time. It isn't rough. I forgot to mention that we did slightly sand it in places with a palm sander. If there were rough patches, we just hit it with fine grit paper. But, we only did that in about 10 small spots. We don't think twice about walking barefoot on it. Nor do we worry about having kids walking barefoot and crawling on it. It is smooth and sealed!

I am curious as to what you used to fill in the gaps between the boards? You can email me and let me know how you done that. We left ours with the gaps in place. Just curious as to what you done.Sarahblankenships6@yahoo.com

That turned out beautiful!! I have thought about doing something like this in the past, but was concerned about several things. I think you've cleared all those concerns up for me :) Thanks for sharing!! It really does look great!! -Tammy

We live in a renovated barn with original floors. Some of the gaps were 1/2". We used brown latex caulk to fill the gaps. When the caulk was still wet we covered it with sawdust. The latex moves when the floor shrinks during the winter and expands during the humidity of the summer. The sawdust takes on color of the stain and blends in with the floor boards.

Your floors turned out great! We used plywood to create "wood" floors, too- here: http://www.anoregoncottage.com/2009/12/remodeling-series-part-5-garage.html But we used wider widths- next time we'll use narrower widths like yours- so cool.

I do want to mention, though, that we just laid the plywood next to each other with no gaps (though some happen naturally)and you can easily see the planks because the stain is darker in those areas- no need to paint all the gaps then!

Wholly Guacamole! Your floor looks fabulous! And much cheaper than wood floors. I should know, I even bought our antique pine floors off of Craig's List and still paid a pretty penny for our small living room (http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/2010/08/prepping-to-install-antique-heart-pine.html). I love what you did.

This is seriously AMAZING! I so want to do this in my house.. and someday- I will!

I am so impressed, I love how it turned out. I feature awesome projects like this on my blog, so I was wondering if you might be interested in a feature. Let me know if that is something you would consider. It usually gives you a boost of traffic and readers. Check the blog out if you have the chance www.remodelaholic.com and send an email my way if you are interested (you can usually just reply to this comment!)

Amazing! We have an older home that was renovated in the 80's (by a previous owner). I want to get it back to the older farm house feel and this floor would be perfect! We have beige carpets throughout the house now...definitely not giving a farm house vibe :) Plus with 2 kids and 2 dogs...wood is much better than light-colored carpets!!!

It IS the cheap way out. Thats the whole point. That you don't have to spend hard earned money on over-priced wooden floors, most people don't have that kind of money. And this looks absolutely amazing! :) hard work = great results

While this look may not be for you, it does not feel like plywood. We bought smooth boards and sanded it in places if it felt rough. It also has 4 coats of poly. It feels just like any other wood flooring that costs 3 times as much.

And yes, it was the cheap way out!! Otherwise we would have spent 2k on laminate. We like this look better!

It may be the cheap way but it sure doesn't look it! My niece was telling me she had seen something like this and was planning on doing it, I just couldn't picture it but you sure showed me that it could be done beautifully. Thanks so much for sharing.

I am amazed! Plywood looks that good? I am wondering if this would work at my house because I love how little it cost!!! Thanks so much. I am featuring this at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com. Grab my "featured" button.

Wow! This is fantastic! It looks like you put a lot of effort into that floor, but the result is beautiful. I love your painting solution (to fill the white cracks). Very smart :)Thanks so much for sharing!Cami @ youseriouslymadethat.blogspot.com

Beautiful! But, question...how does this hold up as far as wear and tear? Will you have to re-poly every year? I would love to do this, but am concerned about traffic, how long it will really last, etc. What are your thoughts?

Holy Toledo! That is one amazing floor... so glad Gail sent me your way! I would never ever believe that was a plywood floor if it weren't for your tutorial. Totally awesome! That plywood is a lot thicker than the new (expensive) laminates out there. Your floor is going to last forever! Great job!

I live in an apartment. I also have allergies. While this is a lot of work it's a much cheaper solution than wood floors. Now that the project has been complete for a while, how do you like it? If you did not leave a gap, would that have eliminated the white/red color?

As I was reading this post, I imagined the video version of what you did here. We're waiting for the flooring at our mom's house in Indianapolis to finish. We chose to retain and restore the hardwood there because it really makes the living room cozy. Good thing that we also opted to leave very little gaps like you did there, because these make the whole flooring more "woody."

We are redoing our home and have done this to our flooring. We love it! We chose to chamfer the edges so that it looks like there is a gap between the boards. We then went back and sanded the cracks to make them look more defined. Would love to post pics if optional.We are very happy with the work, it looks amazing!

THAT is FABULOUS! I so hate hate hate the ugly carpet in my living room and planned on ripping it out in 2 weeks (even without another plan in place I might add) NOW I know what I want to do! I'm pinning you and I'm your new follower :)

Well.... call me crazy but I am going to try it on my ceiling. I have a cathedral ceiling in the living room which has popcorn texture at the moment. I'm gonna scrape it and cover it with the ply planks using nailing it to the existing joists

I was just curious if you had done this in your kitchen yet? My boyfriend and I were thinking of doing this in our kitchen, but I have heard that plywood "warps" badly, and will start to rise if it gets wet? Wondering if you have this in yourkitchen yet, and if so, how it is?

I am glad that I am not the only one who thought about doing this to save money. Just glad I found a tutorial. Thank you!! Also couldn't you use caulk in between the planks instead of paint? The paint looks fabulous and matches fantastically. I can't wait to do my house. My plan was to do my hall, living room, dining room and kitchen. Possibly our bedroom. I haven't decided yet. :) Thanks for sharing!!

I'm a bit confused about the 1/16" spaces. Did you leave the spaces for expansion? You filled them in with paint? That's basically a half inch in depth of paint? Hard to imagine it ever drying. Looks great.

Great project...I didn't see this listed, but how did you fill in the gaps between the boards. Did you use wood putty, cause that is a lot of putty? Or was it the poly that filled in the gaps and hardened? I Love the project and the money saved and it turned out so beautiful... great work! Cheers, niko :O)

Shortly after reading this post about a year ago, we decided to follow these instructions and make this plank flooring in our new addition. We couldn't be happier. We did a slightly more random plank pattern so it looks more like tongue and groove, and used a dark stain. It looks amazing. We also put 3 coats of oil based poly and it has held up like iron, no loose boards or squeeky floors. I plan to post to my blog when it is completely finished (were about 80% there), and link back here. With careful planning, this cost us less than $1 per square foot completed. It's slightly time consuming, but very cost effective.

I love this. We have been looking into using recovered wood for a feature wall in our bedroom - This looks like much cheaper option - totaly do-able! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'm a new follower!

That's just fantastic. It looks good as it is, even without the furniture in it. Is that your future bedroom, or is it the living room? Anyway, did you use any poly underlay on that one? It will help prevent the movement of your tiles if there are plank cracks and damaged tile grouts. Hopefully, you did use it.

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Looks awesome! I'm fixing up a house...on a budget...and am thinking of doing this in the bedrooms, living room, and kitchen after reading your tutorial! Thanks for sharing! I saw a lot of questions about how you filled in the 1/16" gap between the boards but could not find a response??? Could you fill me in on the fill in please? ;-pThanks!

while this looks great and the instructions are good, why wouldn't you include what you did in between the boards? Don't you think that would have been helpful information. I'm thinking there is more to this.

I'm confused what you filled the gaps between the boards with. You said you left a space between each board right? (I understand you painted the flooring in between, but wouldn't there still be a crevice?)

I appreciate the creativity. When installing the seams should be staggered and have no discernable pattern which is supposed to strengthen the floor? But maybe it doesn't matter because this isn't tongue and groove? Or maybe is the staggering just for aesthetics?

I have read all the comments here Because I have had some of the same questions as others. How's it holding up today? Was the cracks filled in or was this the subfloor that you painted and let the poly fill the cracks in? Did you do this floor in the kitchen? I think it's time to re-visit the floor blog again! :) So many want to find out more!!!!

I would also like to know if there is an issue with warping; we've put down luan over plywood subfloor before and had huge problems using liquid nail; granted, it was a really bad subfloor. Also, what grade and thickness of plywood did you use? I'd love to replicate this look in our new house.

hello my name is scotty, i own Hameister Construction here in rochester mn "like us on facebook" i love this floor. i showed it to a customer and he is going to let me use his house to try this floor out. you gave us step by step how to do it and i hope it turns out as great as yours did. thanks again

You certainly did an amazing job on this. It certainly does not look like plywood. In recent times, people have become more involved in home improvement ideas and this post you have shared will certainly inspire many. Thank you for the tutorial. Please keep on posting.

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We did it out of desperation several years ago (when we realized there was mold in the flooring beneath our carpeting and we had no cash set aside for new floors). It looked presentable and we were able to disguise it with area rugs for about a year, then it started getting trashed. Don't even THINK of moving furniture on it, having a rocker, or large dogs.

We did it out of desperation several years ago (when we realized there was mold in the flooring beneath our carpeting and we had no cash set aside for new floors). It looked presentable and we were able to disguise it with area rugs for about a year, then it started getting trashed. Don't even THINK of moving furniture on it, having a rocker, or large dogs.

I am interested in knowing more about this project And can i just say amazing it looks just amazing , how thick is the plywood again.i read where it was 15/32 And my boyfriend keeps saying there,s no way i muerte be mistsken on this, i just need to confirm the thickness of plywood purchased ? Thanks. Cfessman32 @ yahoo.com please

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When people change flooring, they often think about the cost of doing it. Thank you for sharing this piece of greatness. Plank flooring is just gorgeous in a home! Not to mention that you have done it perfectly! What makes it even more perfect is your $1500 savings and the fact that it started out as plywood! Cheers to you!

We are thinking of purchasing a 1200 square foot rental house and ths looks like such a good idea! I would like to know how it has worn to date and ave you had any warping? Would you do it again? Please email me at: dblagrave@hotmail.com. Thank you

Thank you so much! We have bee looking for a way to redo the flooring in my father-in-laws cabin inexpensively and this will be awesome as it looks rustic, perfect for the northern woods feel. I am curious what you put between the planks? I see you have several comments on your blog which means that you have inspired many people but if you see this question, please respond and I will keep checking back. Can't wait to try this. Steph A.

One word: WOW! That is simply amazing. Getting to make plywood look like plank flooring for the fraction of the price is just wonderful. It’s great to know that there are alternatives to the dream floors that we’ve always wanted. Thanks for this great post!

Hi -- Love the floor. I am thinking about doing the same to my living room - I have a concrete floor and am concerned about laying the floor over it. Was your base floor concrete or wood. If concrete do you need any kind of moisture barrier. Peg

i did this to my kitchen floor. i'm into primitive decor & wanted the floor to look like a well used farmhouse plank floor. i now know that lowes will rip the plywood (utility board 3/16")for you. i lightly sanded all edges to get a rounded edge...i stained each piece...then, made the rounded edge a slightly darker shade of stain for an aged look. after the whole floor was down, i filled in the gaps between the pieces with black silicone caulk...to seal & resemble tar, cutting the tip of caulk tube as small as possible. i really think the poly would be a sufficient seal between the pieces, but i was looking for a certain look...& i got it. i love it & get soooo many compliments..thinking about doing the livingroom now. i, too, just hate carpet any more & the more carpet i yank out...the better my boyfriend's allergy issues become..!!

I want to redo my kitchen floor as well as my living room with hardwood flooring. I dont know much about what wood or how much it will cost. Does anyone know of any good hardwood plywood in ny? I appreciate the feedback and help.

Best practice for flooring: The joints (by joints I mean the board ends, I can't think of a better word) between boards should be more than one board apart (whereas you have them lined up every other board), they should really be randomly placed and far apart if they line up with another joint. Hopefully it doesn't give you any trouble though. It looks really nice. My dad actually did a similar thing and made a floor by just buying birch ply and laying it in whole sheets, after being finished it looks really great as well.

Before sometime I never believe on Normal Flooring Techniques. But i completely agree with you. to provide this types of post. Although I believe there a ultimate solution for the Flooring Techniques. Thanks for convince through a best method.

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Love the flooring! Amazing job:)I do have a question. After you ripped up your carpet, why didn't you just use your plywood that was under the carpet and cut that into planks? I'm asking because we have plywood under our carpet and thinking we could just use that. Probably more work but cheaper since you don't have to go and buy new plywood.Thoughts?

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About Me

I'm a homeowner stumbling through remodeling, redoing, creating, painting, patching, and growing. I work from home as an online instructor/pet doorman. My husband rocks, our pets are fun, and we're trying to make our house our HOME while not breaking the bank. We have a lot of fun all along the way... even when the house leaks and the caulk won't set up. This blog started as a way for us to keep track of our projects because I'm not a very good scrapbooker!